Month: July 2015

The current housing boom has Dallas solidly in its grip. As in many cities around the US, prices are soaring, buyers are going nuts, sellers run the show, realtors are laughing all the way to the bank, and the media are having a field day. Nationwide, the median price of existing homes, at $236,400, as the National Association of Realtors sees it, is now 2.7% higher than it was even in July 2006, the insane peak of the crazy housing bubble that blew up with such spectacular results.

Housing Bubble 2 has bloomed into full magnificence: In many cities, the median price today is far higher, not just a little higher, than it was during the prior housing bubble, and excitement is once again palpable. Buy now, or miss out forever! A buying panic has set in.

And so the July edition of D Magazine – “Making Dallas Even Better,” is its motto – had this enticing cover, sent to me by David in Texas, titled, “The Great Dallas Land Rush”:

That’s true for many cities, including San Francisco. The “Boom Town,” as it’s now called, is where the housing market has gone completely out of whack, with a median condo price at $1.13 million and the median house price at $1.35 million. This entails some consequences [read… The San Francisco “Housing Crisis” Gets Ugly].

The fact that Housing Bubble 2 is now even more magnificent than the prior housing bubble, even while real incomes have stagnated or declined for all but the top earners, is another sign that the Fed, in its infinite wisdom, has succeeded elegantly in pumping up nearly all asset prices to achieve its “wealth effect.” And it continues to do so, come heck or high water. It has in this ingenious manner “healed” the housing market.

But despite the current “buying panic,” the soaring prices, and all the hoopla round them, there is a fly in the ointment: overall homeownership is plunging.

The homeownership rate dropped to 63.4% in the second quarter, not seasonally adjusted, according to a new report by the Census Bureau, down 1.3 percentage points from a year ago. The lowest since 1967!

The process has been accelerating, instead of slowing down. The 1.2 percentage point plunge in 2014 was the largest annual drop in the history of the data series going back to 1965. And this year is on track to match this record: the drop over the first two quarters so far amounts to 0.6 percentage points.

This accelerated drop in homeownership rates coincides with a sharp increase in home prices. Go figure.

The plunge in homeownership rates has spread across all age groups, but to differing degrees. Younger households have been hit the hardest. In the age group under 35, the homeownership rate in Q2 saw a slight uptick to 34.8%, from the dismal record low of 34.6% in the prior quarter. Either a feeble ray of hope or just one of the brief upticks, as in the past, to be succeeded by more down ticks on the way to lower lows.

This chart by the Economics and Strategy folks at National Bank Financial shows the different rates of homeownership by age group. The 35-year and under group is where the first-time buyers are concentrated; and they’re being sidelined, whether they have no interest in buying, or simply don’t make enough money to buy (represented by the sharply descending solid black line, left scale). Note how the oldest age group (dotted blue line, right scale) has recently started to cave as well:

The bitter irony? In the same breath, the Census Bureau also reported that the rental vacancy rate dropped to 6.8%, from 7.5% a year ago, the lowest since 1985. America is turning into a country of renters.

This chart shows the dynamics between homeownership rates (black line, left scale) and rental vacancy rates (red line, right scale) over time: they essentially rise and dive together. It makes sense on an intuitive basis: as people abandon the idea of owning a home, they turn into renters, and the rental market tightens up, and vacancy rates decline.

This too has been by design, it seems. Since 2012, private equity firms bought several hundred thousand vacant single-family homes in key markets, drove up prices in the process, and started to rent them out. Thousands of smaller investors have jumped into the fray, buying homes, driving up prices, and trying to rent them out. This explains the record median home price across the country, and the totally crazy price increases in some key markets, even as regular Americans are trying to figure out how to pay for a basic roof over their heads.

This has worked out well. By every measure, rents have jumped. According to the Census Bureau’s report, the median asking rent in the US rose 6.2% from a year ago, and 17.6% since 2011. So inflation bites. But the Fed is still desperately looking for signs of inflation and simply cannot find any.

And how much have incomes risen over these years to allow renters to meet these rising rents? OK, that was a rhetorical question. We already know what has been happening to incomes.

That’s what it always boils down to in the Fed’s salvation of the economy: people who can’t afford to pay the rising rents with their stagnant or declining incomes should borrow the money to make up the difference and then spend even more on consumer goods. After us, the deluge.

Three months ago, just as the last Census Homeownership and residential vacancy report hit, Gallup released it’s latest survey which confirmed just how dead the American Dream has become for tens if not hundreds of millions of Americans.

According to the poll, the number of Americans who did not currently own a home and say they do not think they will buy a home in “the foreseeable future,” had risen by one third to 41%, vs. “only” 31% two years ago. Non-homeowners’ expectations of buying a house in the next year or five years were unchanged, suggesting little change in the short-term housing market.

As Gallup wryly puts it, “what may have been a longer-term goal for many may now not be a goal at all, and this could have an effect on the longer-term housing market.”

Earlier today, the US Census released its latest homeownership data, which confirmed that for what is left of America’s middle class, owning a home has become virtually impossible, with the homeownership rate plunging from the lowest level since 1986, or 63.7%, to just 63.4% the lowest reading since the first quarter of 1967.

Three months ago, when compiling this data we said that “at this rate, by the end of the 2015 and certainly by the end of Obama’s second term, the US homeownership rate will drop to the lowest in modern US history.” That moment, as shown on the chart below, came far sooner than ever we had expected. The only question is whether the lowest homeownership print on record reported in 1965 and standing at 62.9% will be taken out in the next 2 quarters or in early 2016.

There is no surprise why this is happening. As Bloomberg notes, the biggest culprit is wage growth which “hasn’t kept up with surging home prices. The average household income in June was 4 percent below a record high set in early 2008, even as unemployment dropped to its pre-recession rate, according to Sentier Research LLC.”

“We’re still suffering the effects of the housing collapse and the financial crisis,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We may have another percentage point to go before we see a bottom” in the homeownership rate, he said.
Yes, it is safe assume that the imminent lowest homeownership print in US history may be the “bottom.”
Still, the ongoing death of the middle class is not bad news to everyone: landlords, of which private equity firm Blackstone recently became the biggest in the US, are reaping unseen profits courtesy of runaway inflation in at least one item: rent.
Because as homeownership falls, demand for rental housing is booming. The vacancy rate for rented homes in the U.S. fell to 6.8% in the first quarter from 7.5% a year earlier. It was the lowest first-quarter rate since 1986.
And the punchline, which should come as no surprise to anyone: the median monthly asking rent just rose to a record $803 across the US.
Words, however do not do the relentless increase in rent justice, so here is something far better. Charts.

The same, only broken down by region.

And as we showed just two days ago, these are the cities where rents have increased by at least 10% in the past year:

Our condolences dear former members of what was once the world’s most vibrant middle class and is anything but any more. Our only advice, the same as last quarter: BTFATH as you turn off the light, and pray that central banks never lose control of this so-called “market” or else having any roof above your head will promptly become an unaffordable luxury…. As many Chinese investors just found out the hard way.

Nations are like people, they have a character, a personality and a persona. They either have resilience and can bounce back from adversity, or they do not. They either have courage or they cower in the corner because they are weak and timid in the face of danger. And like with the two men, when countries face the same challenges, one country may thrive and the other country takes a dive.

This article is about the story of a tale of two countries. One has stared into the belly of the beast and has survived. The other country is in the process of being devoured by the same beast but is totally unaware of the ultimate and fatal fate that awaits most of its anesthetized citizens who are drunk and distracted on TV, video games, drugs, consumerism, etc.

Who Am I?

This country was on the brink of economic Armageddon and the government, on behalf of the banksters who had hijacked the government, attempted to steal everything they could before they purposely were going to collapse the system. Goldman Sachs and Wall Street were the central players behind the threat. Yet, the brave and intelligent people of this country found a way to not be taken down by the most corrupt and evil forces on the planet, namely the Wall Street bankers. This country has taken corrective measures, in the face of overwhelming adversity and prosperity is returning to this its citizens. In other words, these brave citizens may be the only people on the face of the earth who have successfully stared down the globalists and are defeating them. This country has tremendous national character and resolve. Who am I?

If you think it is the United States, put your hands down, your answer is incorrect. The answer is Iceland.

The 2008 World’s Economic Meltdown Began In Iceland

America is ready to enter into the final economic disaster zone. Iceland has already been there and their journey was inspired and controlled by Goldman Sachs and fellow Wall Street banksters. Iceland’s journey down the path to economic Armageddon actually began in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Iceland’s Prime Minister David Oddsson, began to do the bidding of Wall Street bankers and instituted a set of Reagan-style policies and privatization. According to author, Roger Boyes, as he documents the world’s descent into economic tyranny in his best-selling book, Meltdown Iceland, the fix was in and Wall Street began to financially obliterate Iceland after plundering its hard assets.
Under the globalists from Wall Street, the banking sector grew rapidly, propelled by borrowed money. Icelanders could access credit easily in just the same manner as pre-2008 crash America. Iceland had its own devastating housing bubble as housing prices escalated exponentially and consumption skyrocketed. In order to attract international currency investments, Iceland raised its interest rates to 15% and the same devastating consequences which befell America was visited upon Iceland. In 2003-2004, prices on the Iceland stock market increased 900% before crashing.America, are you nervous yet?
Iceland’s bubble was no different than any other economic bubble. By 2006, what I call the heroin effect kicked in and the average Icelander was 300% wealthier than in 2003, but hopelessly in debt. Iceland was experiencing a 1929 pre-crash America as well as the symptoms of our impending crash in 2013. The citizens were seduced by easy money and acted as if they were addicted to heroin. Meanwhile, the government, banking and corporate debt grew out of control until the time to pay up finally arrived.
By 2008 Iceland’s banks collapsed, it was time for Icelanders to pay for their extravagant ways and 50,000 of its people’s savings were wiped out. Keep in mind that Iceland only has a population of 300,000. If those same numbers were to be visited upon America, we would be looking 50 million Americans having their savings wiped out. Let me ask the same question that I always ask at this point. Do you now understand why DHS has purchased 2.2 billion rounds of ammunition to go with 2700 armored personnel carriers? Do you now understand why Jade Helm exists. When the economy collapses, perhaps as early as the fall of 2015, Jade Helm and their international partners will be in place to restore order, a New World Order.
From where I sit, the people of Iceland have more courage in their little finger than America has in its entire being. Iceland’s financial failure forced its government to resign or be removed, and it also caused citizens to re-evaluate the merits of their reckless spending, borrowing and consumption. Just how did Iceland do it?

Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimmson was interviewed in 2013 at the World Economic Forum in Davos on why Iceland has enjoyed such a strong recovery after it’s complete financial collapse in 2008, while the rest of the West is still mired in debt, poverty and hopelessness to go with empty promises of an economic recovery.

When asked whether Iceland’s policy of letting the banks fail would have worked in the rest of Europe, Grimsson stated:

“… Why are the banks considered to be the holy churches of the modern economy? Why are private banks not like airlines and telecommunication companies and allowed to go bankrupt if they have been run in an irresponsible way? The theory that you have to bail-out banks is a theory that you allow bankers enjoy for their own profit their success, and then let ordinary people bear their failure through taxes and austerity. People in enlightened democracies are not going to accept that in the long run. …“

Imagine that, let the banks fail! Let the criminal bankers take the same risk as any other business venture. Can we imagine Obama ever speaking this way in public?

And nearly seven years later, where is Iceland at today? They have jailed the criminal bankers within their country. If they could get their hands on Goldman Sachs officials they would. They impeached and convicted corrupt politicians who were in league with Wall Street, many of which are serving prison sentences. Iceland made its way to a full economic recovery while still saying no to the corrupt Goldman Sachs influences in Europe. Iceland is saying no to the Bank of International Settlements. Iceland is a beacon of hope for the rest of the G20 nations including the United States.

Architect of the Bail Outs, Former Goldman Sachs and Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson

Do you remember this former Secretary of Treasury and former Goldman Sachs head, a total criminal, Hank Paulson, who threatened Congress with martial law if Congress did not hand over the nation’s money, both present and future, to Wall Street? Don’t remember? The event(s) was called a “bail-out”. Does that ring a bell?

Damage Control Analysis

Both countries, faced economic ruin. However, but only one country has prevailed. Going on seven years after the Wall Street bailouts, where is America at today? Well, we are nowhere near where Iceland is at today. Let’s look at a few numbers

Under the Obama administration, the national debt has doubled as it races by the $18 trillion mark. It would now take a whopping $170,000+ per taxpayer to cover the debt. In a moment the $18 trillion dollar debt will seem like a bargain for what lies ahead.

Under Obama, taxpayers are covering $2 billion dollars per day in jobless benefits and other forms of welfare and that number is escalating dramatically. The Big Three in health care coverage, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare, are adding $1 trillion dollars per year to the deficit. Social Security is adding $1 trillion dollars per year to the deficit.

It should now become clear why Obamacare has a set of eugenics based treatment exclusions which will significantly lower the Social Security deficit due to the planned kill off of the elderly in this country through age exclusions.
The elective wars of occupation are costing the country $700 billion per year. And the debt interest is presently at $1 billion dollars per day. Federal pensions are on the verge of breaking the system. The Civil Service Retirement System has once again accounted for the majority of that unfunded liability. The Civil Service Retirement System debt grew from $634 billion dollars in fiscal year,2010 to over $741 billion dollars in fiscal year 2011, according to the Office of Personnel Management’s Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund.

More and more people and organizations are becoming adept at identifying the evil injustices which have invaded every facet of our lives.

Jade Helm has put this nation under martial law. Malls, schools, stadiums, arena’s and warehouses are being prepared to become makeshift FEMA camps. Christians, on a national scale are being marginalized in favor of gays and Muslims. Pharmaceuticals have taken over the legislative process and are getting government to mandate vaccines with no exemptions. CPS is still stealing kids, many for no other reasons than the fact that it is profitable to do so.

Maybe there was a reason why Jesus chased the money changers from the Temple!

One Enemy Is At the Heart of What Is Going On

Of all the identified enemies of humanity, there is one enemy which stands out among all others. IF you took away Jade Helm, you would still have the bankers. Jesus did not chase the Jews, followers of ISLAM, the gays, the Pope, he chased the banks from the temple.

Pogo is correct. It is we the people who have become adept at mastering the craft of perpetuating our own enslavement. We provide the labor and the capital which enslaves us. This article illustrates one small example of how we are being enslaved and more importantly, what we can do about it.

Whether it is banking, healthcare or even public education, the globalist bankers have virtual control over the entire system. They also control the dialogue through their domination of the mainstream media and they do so to their advantage and to our extreme detriment.

This article will take a very brief look at banking and then propose solutions based upon common sense and from the field of psychology which could be used to mitigate the effectiveness of the globalists on a broad front in this arena.

Stop Feeding the Beast

The globalists have a definitive infrastructure and when we decide enough is enough and withdraw from this system, their house of cards will begin to crumble and could eventually collapse. The moment humanity realizes that we are contributing to our own enslavement and demise by our complicit participation in the globalists rigged game, we can choose to alter our course by making different decisions. Our continuing decision to fully participate in the banking system is mind boggling because this system is sowing the seeds of humanity’s destruction.

First, it is incomprehensible that people do not take the time to investigate with whom they are entrusting their money. The money changers represent the group most despised by Jesus and if that is not enough, let us consider the fact that these banksters contribute to the starting of every war in order that they can loan out the money for the arms build-up. And then the banksters loan out the money to clean up the mess and we repeat this scenario over and over and over again. To survive, the system needs your children’s involuntary servitude in the military. In other words, when you deposit money in the bank, you are participating in the future death of many of today’s children as they grow into young adulthood. Why would any reasonable person entrust their money to such a system of evil?

Second, the banksters take your money into their hallowed institutions and then multiply it by a factor of nine (i.e. fractional reserve banking) and then loan out this imaginary money at your expense by the inflationary practice that this culminates in. Then the banksters have the intestinal fortitude to loan us back the money at 15, 20, 25% interest on the money created out of thin air. When you put money into the bank, you are committing financial suicide.

Third, when the banksters print their money out of thin air and then charge the government and the people for the right to use “their” money, we in effect are paying for the right to be their debt slaves. And all of this occurs despite the fact that the Constitution says that Congress shall coin money. Of course, a dumbed down populace cannot appreciate or be cognizant of the principles of the Constitution. Why? Because the globalists also control education which is another story for another time.

Fourth, the international banksters are hands down the most corrupt and evil influence on the planet. They perpetrated the Arab Spring in which many have died and there is no end in sight.

The banksters, through the Bilderberg control over NATO, overthrew Libya because that country would not join the Bank of International Settlement’s central banking system and enslave their people into generations of crushing debt. Immediately prior to the time of Libya’s occupation, the Libyan people paid 14 cents for a gallon of gas, provided free education to their citizens as well as free health care. Young Libyan couples getting married were given a home. In America, you American couples get married, buy a home, only to have many of these homes stolen by the fraud of MERS. The banksters could not have that kind of wealth wasted on common people, because unless someone is their debt slave, they cannot be readily controlled.